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I begin an interview with director
John Landis
by inadvertently insulting him.

Anyone else would have taken my comment as the compliment I had intended. But the Chicago-born Landis, who also writes and produces, is a man of strong opinions and sharp tongue. He’s not the kind of guy to accept conventional wisdom about anything, even when it’s to his benefit.

I had suggested that he’s equally adept at comedy (
Animal House
,
Trading Places
) and horror (
Twilight Zone: The Movie
), but even better at combining the two genres (
An American Werewolf in London
). Not every filmmaker is so versatile.

“Well, I have to say that that kind of statement, which I get a lot, always annoys me,” Landis, 62, says from Los Angeles. He’s preparing to come to Toronto for a July 18
Animal House
reunion at
TIFF Bell Lightbox
, followed by a July 20 “In Conversation With …” event, also at TIFF, discussing his entire career. (Details at tiff.net)

“A director gets typed, just like an actor, and part of that is branding,” Landis says, continuing his grousing.

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“Hitchcock branded himself as the master of suspense, but he was also great at humour. The truth is, and it’s something both academics and movie studio executives don’t really understand, is that if you can direct a movie you can direct any genre. It just means telling a story by the juxtaposition of images, you know. If you can direct a science fiction movie, you can direct a western. You can direct a musical. You can direct a film noir or a comedy or a horror picture. The process is exactly the same.”

I tell him a lot of directors would disagree with him. I’ve interviewed many over the years who have told me they’re just not comfortable working in certain genres.

“Well then, they’re stupid,” Landis counters.

“I have to say that they’re just limiting themselves with self-imposed BS. I understand the insecurity of doing something you’re uncomfortable with, but technically, the job is exactly the same, as long as you have the screenplay and the actors. I’m personally baffled by this ghettoizing of filmmakers, which I’ve suffered from. I’m offered now comedies and horror pictures. But I made some of the most successful musicals of all time!” (
The Blues Brothers
, Michael Jackson’s
Thriller
video.)

This kind of blunt talk may explain why Landis has had trouble lately finding movie projects. After rivalling Steven Spielberg for output, variety and visibility from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s, he has all but vanished from the scene in recent years.

Landis went 12 years without making a narrative feature, from
Susan’s Plan
in 1998 (which went straight to video) to
Burke and Hare
in 2010 (very limited theatrical release), both of them billed as black comedies.

“I don’t want to make a movie just to make a movie,” he explains.

“I’ve done that. You can also make movies just to reap financial gain, and I’ve done that, too. I’ve also made movies for political reasons, and for favours. What’s interesting is that at this point in my life, if I’m going to make a movie, I really want it to be a good movie.

“I am convinced that there are some people out there who read screenplays and go, ‘Oh my God, this is a piece of s—t! Let’s send it to John Landis!’ I mean, it’s hard to find good material that people are willing to finance.”

But doesn’t he have some pull in Hollywood? He’s the guy who, along with producer Ivan Reitman, made
Animal House
in 1978 for $3 million (U.S.), using mostly unknown talent, and saw it gross $600 million (U.S.) at the box office. The college comedy also spawned a multitude of like-minded laughers, many of them directed by Landis and Reitman.

“I was never a business guy, and the most successful filmmakers tend to be far more savvy about money than I am. Most of the stuff I like isn’t mainstream. More than half of the movies I’ve made, I don’t think would get made by a studio now.”

This may be a rare example of Landis being too humble. Reitman says that
Animal House
wouldn’t have been the movie it is without Landis.

“I thought he did a hell of a job. I would have directed it slightly differently; it’s just attitude. The physicality that helps the movie a lot, a lot of it did come from him. I really did appreciate him for that. I was there everyday on set and everyday in the editing room and every day in pre-production. It was a very good collaboration and it was very friendly between us, right through the making of the picture.”

These are generous comments from Reitman, whose only regret about
Animal House
“is that I didn’t direct it.” Even though the two had had similar filmmaking experience by the late 1970s (they’d both directed two hybrid indie comedies), Landis had made impressive mainstream impact with
The Kentucky Fried Movie
, his censor-baiting 1977 spoof of film and TV. Universal Pictures decided to go with Landis as director for
Animal House
, much to Reitman’s chagrin.

The studios don’t seem to be in Landis’ corner anymore, but Landis admits that he’s done himself no favours by being so picky in recent years.

“Truthfully, the majority of studio product I don’t want to make. The last movie I was offered by a major was a superhero one — if you look at these movies, even
Iron Man
and Sam Raimi’s
The Amazing Spider-Man
, which were good, they’re still the same movie. There comes the moment where they just become CG extravaganzas. And I’m just tired of seeing cities destroyed.”

He jokes about the influence he’s had on other directors.

“When I saw
Old School
, I was like, ‘Jeez, don’t they owe me money?’ And people keep talking about
Movie 43
(a notorious 2013 bomb), which I haven’t seen, and how
Kentucky Fried Movie
was like a paragon of excellence compared to it. Boy,
Movie 43
must really suck!

“Yes, I do know that I’ve made very influential comedies but I’m certainly not going to claim to be the godfather or anything.”

Landis does take justifiable pride in having made movies like
Animal House
,
The Blues Brothers
and
Trading Places
that have stood the test of time, even if they were viewed as disposable comedies at the time of their initial release.

“That’s the funny thing — so many movies I made were successful commercially but reviled at the time critically. The same critics now refer to them as classics. And I think, WTF? They’re still the same movies.

“But then I think of that famous line by John Huston: ‘Motion picture directors, prostitutes and buildings grow respectable with age.’ ”

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